Qantas won't let me change award flight online

[Tiki]

I have a 3 segment "married" partner award on AA:

MTY - DFW 16:26 19:15
80 minutes connection time. This was not my choice, I was forced into accepting this routing after I got a schedule change email and ran into a married segment issue. They wouldn't let me change this flight to either the 10:15 or 12:08 flight and leave the rest of the itinerary intact. I have been checking floght AA 2171 on Flight Aware and it is often delayed which makes me very nervous.

DFW - MIA 20:35 00:29
MIA - BON 10:40 13:49
This last flight was unavailable for months as part of this married itinerary.

So I was periodically checking the availability and now there are more options. If I was going to start fresh, I could book the first segment as either
MTY - DFW 10:18 1305 or
MTY - DFW 12:08 14:54
The other 2 flights would be the same. Both are available in one married itinerary on the date I want. And I would have a comfortable connection in DFW.

I tried to make the change online but that button is greyed out with instructions to call Qantas.
I have no status and tend to get the hopeless agents who don't ticket things in time.

I was planning to go early to MTY and stand by for the earlier flights. The MIA BON segment is critical because it is not a daily flight so if I miss a connection, I can't get to Bonaire until 2 days later which would be too late.

I know one option is to cancel and rebook, but there is a fee involved. There is also a risk that it doesn't get ticketed and cash tickets are over $1400.

If I rebook first, AA is going to see me booked twice on the DFW-MIA and MIA-BON segments and maybe cancel the whole thing.
MIA BON is not available as a stand-alone segment. Only when married to the MTY itinerary.

 

[Quickstatus]

Maybe Email QF on:
[email protected]

With your concerns and alternative solution

 

[Tiki]

I had called them yesterday, got disconnected and decided to wait until Monday when hopefully more staff will be on duty. Or at least better trained staff?

I am tempted to just book the itinerary I want, wait for ticket to come through and then cancel the old one. But I am worried it may trigger a duplicate booking with AA and they may cancel everything or mess something up. It's just so frustrating I can't just change it online myself.

 

[adenda]

Try the Qantas Twitter channel - can take several hours to get an initial response but in my experience they are competent

 

[Tiki]

OK I just called QF and got a guy who was willing to help but can't. He can't see any of the 3 early flights from MTY-DFW, AA 941, AA 3515, AA 2168 and says it is because they are not marketed as QF codeshares. They are also operated by Envoy as American Eagle and codeshare with BA and JL but not QF.

I can see them logged in as a non-elite, he can see them if he logs in as a customer on the QF.com but he can't access them on his booking screen.

If I was booking this fresh, I would choose the AA 3515 but AA 2168 is ok too. But if there is some stuff up and they fail to ticket, I could lose the whole booking and be looking at a $1400 cash fare and I can't risk it.

 

[RichardMEL]

That agent was clearly not very well trained. Irrelevant about codeshares for rewards (at least in this respect - does not need to have a QF codeshare) and irrelevant about being operated by Envoy for Eagle as they're essentially AA operated flights If reward space exists they should be able to book it. sigh.

As for why you can't change online - I suspect this is because of the AA flights being involved, AA being on Sabre and so on making it all too hard for automation (and this agent's confusion doesn't seem to help).

 

[Tiki]

I tried calling AA to change it back to what I had before - AA 2168. It was their schedule change that caused this mess and they changed it to AA 2171 without my permission. So I was hoping they could fix it by processing a schedule change. They wouldn't do it, just said it has to be done by Qantas.

I don't get all these forced tight connections anyways. Isn't it in AA's best interest to let passengers have a long connecting time if they prefer? If they are delayed they have to get me to my destination on next available flight. The problem is MIA-BON is only 3 times a week. If I don't make that Wednesday flight, I lose 2 days in Bonaire and then I have a planned flight from Curacao -AMS-IST on KLM. I would use Divi DIvi from BON-CUR.

Then the AA guy transferred me to Qantas and I got another useless agent from Fiji call centre. If I drove out to BNE are there people who can fix this? I can bring a laptop and show them the flights. Also show them the emails showing that it was a schedule change, not my fault.

Alternatively, if i show up at MTY early, can I stand by for the earlier flight to DFW? I don't think they run full.

 

[Quickstatus]

@Tiki,

Yes QF needs to change it
Did you email using the email I posted above - that is the specific email for partner award issues like that.

Here is the AFF thread that discusses partner award issues and the solution QF proposed which is the email I posted above

 

[Tiki]

@Tiki,

Yes QF needs to change it
Did you email using the email I posted above - that is the specific email for partner award issues like that.

Here is the AFF thread that discusses partner award issues and the solution QF proposed which is the email I posted above

OK I will try that. I was trying to fix it by phone first so I could interact with a human and not wait for emails to be replied to.

 

[mx838383]

Agree with @Quickstatus , I’ve had issues with partner airline reward seats. I’ve emailed the escalation team twice and even though they might not respond, my flights gets fixed and ticketed quite promptly. I think that’s their way of responding … fix my flights and new tickets.

 

[Quickstatus]

I was trying to fix it by phone first

No!
The email actually is read by people at QF who actually deal with this particular issue, and is the solution proposed by QF because of the problems passengers have been running into dealing with call centres - just as you have experienced

Because it is an email you can (and I strongly suggest you include the following) write:
1) the original booking
2) the change AA made
3) the problem the change causes you -missed connection and the consequences for you - as you have posted above
4) and importantly the solution that you would like - the alternative flights you prefer - as you have posted above

Keep the email succint

 

[Tiki]

I sent the email a few hours ago, actually forwarded the email THEY sent me to notify me of the changes so they can see it was not my choice. I also attached screenshots of the flights I want which show as available on Qantas.com so they can see that it is available but I can't book it online as a substitute. No reply (only auto acknowledgement email rcvd) or anything yet, booking has not changed. I hope they call me first, i included my phone. Don't know if they are working tomorrow - Anzac Day.

 

[jpp42]

The escalations team may not be working tomorrow or at least would be on reduced staffing. So definitely give them a few days to reply to your email (or maybe just fix your ticket).

 

[Quickstatus]

Don't know if they are working tomorrow - Anzac Day.

Don't know, but I would sit back a few days and re-send email say later in the week if nothing happens to your booking. They may not respond - the way to know is to check your booking and see if they have made changes. Later in the week.... If nothing happens Re-send email

 

[Tiki]

Wow, they do work on Anzac day!
A lady called from a Sydney number informing me that she had given me the flight I asked for -AA 1268 and re-ticketed. She said she had to call AA and get permission to unmarry the segments. Email with new ticket number showed up a few minutes later.

I went on AA and saw that only the first segment needed a seat assignment confirming that the itinerary had apparently been "divorced". My original seats on the other 2 segments were untouched.

Thank you for giving me this email, at last someone who knows their job at QF!

 

[tdimdad]

Thank you for giving me this email, at last someone who knows their job at QF!

Great to hear that you got a good resolution to this!

The beauty of dedicated 2nd/3rd tier specialist teams who sit away from the call centres is their competence and tools & access given. The call centres have what's needed for 95% of the callers, i.e. something rather basic (apart from the WP/P1 team in Hobart which is better skilled and equipped). A call centre agent would have had no access to AA partner airline service desk (whatever they call it) and their call resolution KPI's may discourage them from escalating requests to specialist teams (this seems to be way too common in the customer-facing 1st tier services).

 

[Quickstatus]

The call centres have what's needed for 95% of the callers,
.....
The beauty of dedicated 2nd/3rd tier specialist teams

here is the problem: they don't know to refer the other 5% to their specialist test - or they are not empowered to do so.
That is a failure of the organisation...

I always tell our trainees. If your have NFI refer to someone who has a FI, even at 2am - it empowers them to call and it is not a sign of failure to refer.

 

[Tiki]

Even better, they should have this enabled to do it ourselves online!